


living without much thought will become a deep regret in the days to come

by eggboyksoo



Series: the legends (we are the future) [3]
Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band), SuperM (Korea Band), WayV (Band)
Genre: Alternative Universe - No band, Alternative Universe - Urban Fantasy, Gen, Mentions of Blood, Spies and Assassins, lumark best bros, mentions of injury, mild violence, superm have powers, the exos have clones, the nct kids are all assassins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggboyksoo/pseuds/eggboyksoo
Summary: The nature of his job (government-sanctioned assassin) and how he came to be in that position (a difficult childhood infused with inter-dimensional travel) means that Lucas doesn’t like to ask questions. He’s long accepted that sometimes you just don’t get the answers. You don’t get as frustrated if you don’t establish what you don’t know.
Relationships: Mark Lee & Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Series: the legends (we are the future) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536904
Comments: 10
Kudos: 46





	living without much thought will become a deep regret in the days to come

**Author's Note:**

> well, happy new year!! look at me starting 2020 with a brand new fic. i'm still a little nervous about this, but i've looked over it and hopefully it's not Terrible. i've wanted to write this instalment for the superm au for a while so i'm mostly glad that it's done!! i hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> the title comes from nct dream's go! :)

The nature of his job (government-sanctioned assassin) and how he came to be in that position (a difficult childhood infused with inter-dimensional travel) means that Lucas doesn’t like to ask questions. He’s long accepted that sometimes you just don’t get the answers. You don’t get as frustrated if you don’t establish what you don’t know.

So when Lucas wakes up that morning, somehow knowing that Kyungsoo is awake before he even gets the text from Kai, he doesn’t question how. He doesn’t know if it’s because of the bond that he shares with the other six, or just a gut feeling. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a good thing he’s okay. Baekhyun and Kai would be thrilled to have him back, and Doh Kyungsoo also happens to be Lucas’ favourite actor. Would it be selfish to be hopeful for an autograph?

Aside from that, though, he doesn’t think about what Kyungsoo’s appearance might mean. He doesn’t think about Baekhyun’s odd behaviour when he’d arrived at his bedside the day before, or _why_ Lucas had been bound to the others to find the Heart to find him, only for Kyungsoo to rescue himself. If he thinks about it, it probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

It means that when Kai sends another text, informing their group chat that some of the Guardians are arriving in Neo City, he doesn’t ponder why they would be there outside of wanting to see their lost friend. He doesn’t ponder why not all of them are coming, nor why Kai thought it would be important for them to know. Despite Taemin being able to access all of their heads and how they’re all connected now, Guardian information is still on a need-to-know basis. Lucas is okay with that. He’s just a grunt, and that stuff is past his pay grade.

As far as he’s concerned, their mission—one that they didn’t even carry out, but he’s not going to ponder that too hard, it’s not his job—is over. The Heart wanted them to get Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo, by virtue of the badass everyone assumed he was, had done it himself. Lucas helped tend to his wounds, and now he’s on the mend, surrounded by people that care for him. Sounds pretty sweet. It’s weird that the Heart would go to such extremes, connecting them all for a mission that was kinda pointless, but Lucas has seen weirder shit, and he’s ready for a new adventure.

But just as Lucas is about to order some celebratory take-out for lunch, he feels the familiar tugging in his gut. The next thing he knows, he’s in the NCTU infirmary, standing outside Kyungsoo’s treatment room, flanked by Mark and Ten, and being introduced to one of the most handsome people he’s seen in his _life_ (which is saying something, since Lucas likes to think he sets the standard).

“Kids,” Baekhyun says, fondly, “This is Kim Junmyeon. You may know him from iconic musical theatre shows such as—”

“Baekhyun, I don’t think that’s really important at the moment—”

“Fine then, I’ll talk about it later.” Lucas notes the teasing grin on his hyung’s face, the way the tension seems to have bled out of his shoulders. He sobers up a little before saying, “Junmyeonie-hyung is also the leader of the Guardians.”

Squaring his shoulders, Junmyeon nods, and Lucas realises that despite looking like a beautiful model with red hair, Kim Junmyeon radiates authority from every single pore (he’s not sure that’s a good analogy, considering Kim Junmyeon looked _poreless_ , but anyway). He understands immediately why Baekhyun looks up to him, why he strives so hard to emulate him when he needs to be a leader. The way Junmyeon carries himself, his assertive but unruffled look, makes him look like the perfect role model.

“It’s nice to meet you all. Taeyong, Mark, Lucas and Ten, is that right?” When they all nod in response, Junmyeon smiles. “Please correct me if I mix you up. I’m afraid I didn’t sleep very much on my flight in.”

“He says that,” Baekhyun adds, “But he’ll remember.”

The look Junmyeon shoots Baekhyun is exasperated, but fond.

“I’m sorry if this is a stupid question,” Mark says, “But, uh. Why are we here?”

Baekhyun’s face changes imperceptibly, but it’s the twist in his gut—in all of their guts, from the way Mark stiffens beside him—that has Lucas looking from Baekhyun to Junmyeon, to back again.

Junmyeon steps in. “Us Guardians had a lot of catching up to do,” he says. “And while we’re all grateful that Baekhyun and Jongin thought to protect us by keeping information from you, we’ve decided that you have every right to be informed as us. It’s the least that we can do.”

Baekhyun opens the door, gesturing them through. “Taeminnie’s already inside,” he says. “Needed him here earlier so we could talk about the Heart. But there are a few other things we need to talk to you about, too.”

Lucas shares a look with the others—confusion, mostly, but they’re used to that now—before Taeyong leads them inside.

* * *

Lucas might be an assassin, and despite most people’s preconceived notions of assassins having no personality outside of being a Killing Machine, Lucas’ deep love of pop culture grounds him when the going gets tough. And technically, although Baekhyun and Kai had thrown around names that he recognised, it didn’t click that Baekhyun and Kai, despite their own personal fame, were friends with some of the industry’s best and brightest.

But no, there’s Oh Sehun, a dancer and a budding television personality, who features on Lucas’ favourite reality shows; the famous composer Loey, whom Lucas is introduced to as Park Chanyeol; the legendary vocalist Kim Jongdae, whose OST had topped the charts for 13 weeks and made Lucas cry for almost all of that time. Junmyeon is in a lot more stuff than Lucas realised, stuff that Lucas loves, but he blames Junmyeon’s striking features for wiping his mind blank. Then there’s Kyungsoo, of course, and Lucas can’t help but say, “Honestly, I’m a really big fan of your work,” which makes him smile from his hospital bed, and results in everyone cooing about their Genius Actor.

But the mood turns serious quickly, and Lucas receives answers for questions that he was trying very hard not to think about. And then some.

The clones thing is clearly new information—not to all of them, but definitely some. Lucas sees it in the way Kai fidgets as he processes, the frown on Sehun’s face. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun just stare at each other, like they’ve already discussed this. The rest of them have a range of different reactions—Taeyong’s jaw looks ready to drop, but Taemin nods along, like he’s fully aware of what’s going on. He probably is.

“I guess we know what they were doing in The Lab now,” Chanyeol says at one point, tapping an aggressive rhythm on his thigh. The other Guardians freeze up for a moment, before Jongdae changes the subject.

Again, Lucas doesn’t ponder. It’s their story to tell.

They don’t bring up The Lab again, although it’s clear that at some point, someone had managed to obtain enough genetic information from them to create replicas of them all. They know Kyungsoo doesn’t have a clone—the Heart proved that—but it remains silent on the others, particularly Minseok and Yixing.

“The Red Force know who we are, they always have,” Kyungsoo explains. “But we chose to put ourselves in the public spotlight to make sure that if we went missing, that at least people would notice we were missing this time.”

“But Minseok-hyung’s football team got infiltrated with Red Force members, so he enlisted to get away from them,” Sehun says. “If he didn’t, they probably would’ve killed him.”

“Yixing-hyung got too popular,” Kai adds. “Red Force members were able to infiltrate his studio. They have too much power over him. If he tries to break free, they’ll turn the public against him, and he needs their protection. But he’s doing his best. One day, he’ll be able to come home.”

“But you guys haven’t been made,” Taeyong points out, “And there are clones of you?”

“But that’s the thing,” Jongdae says sadly. “Minseokie-hyung is in the military, but they’ve got a good eye on him. Maybe they’ve followed him in, too. Kyungsoo had been captured around the time they’d been made, even if they could make a clone for him. When they’re already captured, there’s no need to go to all this effort.”

Lucas doesn’t go looking for questions, or answers, or any information that he doesn’t need outside of what a mission requires him. He’s realising now, though, that the mission that he’d thought he’d been sent on wasn’t the real mission at all. “So the Heart chose us,” he says, “to help find your clones?”

The Guardians look at each other with uncertainty before they nod.

Taemin says, “The Heart chose us to protect them. Because if the clones _are_ them—”

“Then it’ll be hard for them to be defeated by the Guardians themselves,” Ten finishes. “The Heart chose us to give them an advantage.”

Baekhyun smiles wryly. “Surprise.”

* * *

Lucas’ brain hurts when they finally leave Kyungsoo’s room, hours later.

Some of the Guardians have already left, trying to ease suspicion. Taemin had left with Kai, wanting to talk to him about some things. As far as Lucas knows, the only people left in Kyungsoo’s room is Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo himself.

It’s a lot to process. Lucas the Person is trying to sort through all the information he’s just recieved, surprised that his favourite celebrities have had such shitty lives. Lucas the Assassin is trying to assess the scale of the mission they’d been presented, and what he’d have to do in order to do it successfully.

He’s seen a lot of stuff, but this shit is so out of left field, he has no idea what to do.

“I can’t wait to tell Kun his favourite child star is thriving in this world _and_ he’s a Guardian.” Ten’s so valid for focussing on other important things.

“I still can’t believe Sehun is Johnny’s childhood friend,” Taeyong replies.

“Wait,” Ten says, pausing. “The one from elementary school—?”

Ten and Taeyong talk quietly amongst themselves, while Lucas allows himself to process _that_ info (you know, Sehun and Johnny being friends doesn’t seem _that_ crazy). But Mark is quiet beside him, and Lucas feels that.

“We’re going to get some samgyeopsal,” Taeyong says, gesturing to him and Ten. “Wanna join us?”

Lucas considers—rowdy drunk people isn’t a conducive place for thinking, but samgyeopsal is _samgyeopsal_ —but before he can give an answer, Mark shakes his head. “I’m gonna pass, sorry guys,” he says. “I think I need a moment.”

“Fair enough,” Ten says. “I was gonna put off thinking about all this shit until tomorrow.”

Taeyong sighs. “Same. Or at least until I’m properly inebriated.”

“Totally valid,” Lucas replies, “But I’m with Mark on this one.”

Ten pats them both on the cheek. “Okay, babies,” he says. “See you tomorrow.”

Lucas can still hear Ten and Taeyong talking about Sehun and Johnny’s surprising friendship, the pair both discussing how unfair it was that they both seemed blessed with good looks and height and whether or not it was environmental. Mark chuckles as their voices fade down the hallway, before slinging an arm around Lucas with a sigh.

“Clones, huh?” Mark says, and Lucas can hear the exhaustion bleed into his voice. “Thought I’d seen some crazy shit during my time, but this takes the cake.”

“Taeyong-hyung can clone himself,” Lucas points out.

Mark shakes his head. “Nah, that’s different. Hyung makes copies of himself. Self-replication.”

“... That’s literally what a clone is, Mark.”

“No, dude, those copies are all Taeyong,” Mark replies. “They can’t go rogue and like, try to kill him or something. They’re just fragments of himself.”

“Huh. Didn’t know that.” Lucas had only ever seen Taeyong use his powers once, and until the Heart had connected him to Taeyong, he had thought that it had been an injury-induced delusion.

They settle into silence, familiar, although it’s been a while since they’ve been able to hang out alone like this. It’s nice, and Lucas doesn’t allow himself to wonder if they’ve been subconsciously avoiding each other since they were reunited in August, using Baekhyun and Kai as buffers.

“It’s been a while since we’ve done this,” Mark says, as if he knows what Lucas has been thinking. “Couple of months, hasn’t it?”

Mark is too nice to say, _Not since you disappeared with Ten out of nowhere._

“Yeah,” Lucas replies, trying not to keep his shoulders relaxed. “We’ve been pretty busy though, haven’t we? I can’t believe we haven’t had time to do anything cool. When do you think we’re gonna try out Baekhyun-hyung’s jacuzzi?”

“Hopefully sometime soon,” Mark replies, but he doesn’t sound anywhere as enthusiastic as he should be. “I was talking about before that, bro.”

Ah. He guesses there’s no way he’s getting out of this conversation now.

“You literally disappeared off the face of the earth, Lucas,” Mark continues. “You could’ve left a note. People legit thought you were dead.”

“I didn’t mean to worry anyone.” And that’s the truth. Ten had held out a hand and said, _I think I can take you back home_ , and for the first time in a long time, Lucas had acted with his heart rather than his head. There hadn’t been time to think about covering bases or what it meant to leave—he’d thought of the family he’d left behind, and he’d made the Walk.

Mark sighs, stepping in Lucas’s line of sight. “Look, I don’t want to make you feel bad about it,” he says. “I know how much that trip must have meant to you. I guess I’m just sad you didn’t think anyone would miss you here. Not gonna lie, I was pretty devastated until I found out you’d left with Ten.”

Mark is the closest thing he has to a best friend in this place, in this world, even. Lucas might not know Mark as well as the others know him—and Lucas knows for a fact Mark doesn’t know a lot about his past—but for someone who has been trained to be a national spy since childhood, Mark Lee reads like an open book.

“Mark, my dude,” Lucas says, “It was nice to go home, but I couldn’t stay there forever. This is like, my place now.”

The other world belongs to Xuxi, to Yukhei. They’re still _him_ , but these days they’re memories than facets of his personality. He’s glad to have gone seen his family, to spend time with them and reminisce, but his life is here now.

Or at least, hopefully it will be. This side project helping the Guardians has kept him busy, but he still doesn’t know if the NCTU will take him back after such an extended leave of absence.

Mark breathes—one long exhale from his nose— and pats Lucas’ waist from where he’s holding it. “Cool,” he says finally. “If you’d left, everyone would clown me.”

“Bold of you to assume I don’t clown you.”

“Fuck off.”

Lucas is about to make a clever remark when the sound of his stomach cuts off his train of thought completely. Mark cackles, pointing at his stomach a few times, and Lucas laughs along with him.

“I’m gonna order some chicken and beer,” Lucas says. “Let’s go to the common area and just talk about how crazy this shit is.”

Mark sleepily smiles at him, and Lucas suppresses the need to coo. “Bro, that sounds great.”

Lucas calls their favourite chicken shop and orders completely on muscle memory. Mark steers them into the direction of their favourite common room—sort of small and crummy, which means that it’s always free—without everyone saying anything. No matter how crazy things become, Lucas thinks as he opens the door to the common room, it’s nice to know that the little things can stay the same.

But when Lucas takes in the sight of five people circling the dingy old couch, assorted weapons and a blood trail on the floor, he wonders when the crazy shit will take a break.

“I’m not messing around anymore, okay? Keep still or I’ll knock you out.” A pink-haired boy flits around the sprawled figure on the couch. His voice is familiar, though; Lucas would know Jaemin’s voice from anywhere.

Time has carved out Jaemin’s jaw and cheekbones further, but his pink hair and ridiculously long eyelashes still softens his look. Soft but sharp. Velvet over steel. He’s clearly not dealing with any bullshit at the moment. “Try me, fucker,” Jaemin says, a threatening smile on his face, “I _will_ end you.”

Lucas can’t hear the reply—it’s muffled by the human shield around him. There’s Donghyuck, grimly holding a knife in one hand and some bandages in another. Jeno, eyes anxiously flitting between Jaemin and the couch. Jisung, watching over Jeno’s shoulder, eyes wide. Chenle, grinning at every snide comment as he packs up his tech. Which means—

“Kids,” Mark says, stepping away from Lucas and into the concerned older brother role he occupies around the Dream Unit, “What happened to Renjun?”

Five pairs of eyes flit in their direction, Jeno and Jaemin stepping aside to reveal Renjun on the couch. No words need to be said: the damage is clear on Renjun’s face.

Lucas steps forward before realising, taking in the mottled purples and reds blooming over Renjun’s right eye, squinting at the cut over his eyebrow that’s still bleeding. Jaemin hands over the gauze and disinfectant to him, and Lucas gets onto his knees, ready to start the clean up. Jaemin’s the Dreamies’ medic, but Lucas is pretty well known for his own abilities. People blew up the way he had to stitch himself up on a mission once and now he’s basically a doctor. It’s pretty cool.

“Why aren’t you in the infirmary, Junnie?” He knows Renjun pretty well—they’d lived together for over a year when they’d first entered the program. Even if Lucas couldn’t read his tense jaw and the way he bites down on his lip, the way others are staring him is another indication.

Renjun doesn’t answer. Lucas reaches up and dabs at his eyebrow, noting the way Renjun flinches when he makes contact.

“Doesn’t matter what Renjun thinks,” Mark says, speaking from a place of experience. “Why didn’t you take him anyway?”

“Renjun wanted to debrief as soon as we got back,” Jeno says. He’s taller than Mark now, and he’s clearly been at the gym heaps, but he still cowers a little. Before Lucas had left and Mark had been permanently assigned to Unit 127, Jeno and Renjun had been announced as Dream’s new co-Unit Leaders. Old habits die hard, it seems. “I couldn’t reason with him, so I told him we had to stop by here first, and Jaemin would patch him up.”

“Renjun-hyung was kicking and screaming the entire time,” Chenle says, closing up his tech case and coming to stand by Mark. “Hi, Lucas-hyung. Long time no see. Do you guys have food? I’m fucking starving.”

“Well we—”

“I want to go debrief now, so I can make sure the bosses have every detail they need to track that fucker down so I can kill him.” Renjun talked as if he was discussing the weather, but between the blood and the blooming black eye, Renjun looked like he could be Lucas’ sleep paralysis demon.

“We were made as we were preparing for extraction,” Donghyuck says, shrugging at Mark. “Renjunnie got captured by some thugs, but not for too long. Didn’t think it was serious until he nearly walked into an explosion site screaming about how he wanted to punch a mob boss in the dick, though.”

“I still want to do that,” Renjun adds, hissing as Lucas puts on some antiseptic Jisung was holding.

“This is a pretty big gash,” Lucas says.

Renjun glares. “It was just his ring.”

Lucas shakes his head. “You gotta go to the infirmary, Junnie, sorry. You need stitches.”

Renjun stares at Lucas a little longer, probably thinking about all the times Lucas has patched him up after training. He knows Renjun doesn’t like people fussing over him, but Renjun also knows Lucas wouldn’t be telling him this if he didn’t need to go. He sighs, and struggles to his feet. Jeno pushes everyone out of the way, putting an arm around his back to stabilise him. Jaemin squawks with protest (“I’ve been telling you for an hour and a half that you need stitches and Lucas-hyung talked to you for _thirty seconds_ —”) but he follows Jeno and Renjun out, Donghyuck stepping alongside him.

“Chenle, Jisung,” Mark says, “There’s a delivery coming for me and Lucas. You can have some, but if you eat all the chicken or even _touch_ the beer, I will shoot you.”

“Hyung, I’ll be legal in two weeks!”

“Talk to me in two weeks.”

“You should’ve just ordered Coke,” Jisung says, but after Mark shoots them both a look, Jisung and Chenle both grumble something that sounds like agreement.

“Hyungs, you don’t have to come with us,” Jeno says. “I mean, you’re busy—”

“Speak for yourself,” Donghyuck replies, grinning at Mark. “I haven’t seen your ugly face since July. How are the hyungs?”

Mark’s smile looks more like a grimace. “Well, I think? I haven’t seen them in a while. Except Taeyong-hyung.”

Donghyuck frowns. “Why not?”

“Is it the same reason Lucas-hyung is back too?” Renjun asks.

“It’s a long story,” Mark says. His fingers tap against his thigh. He probably doesn’t know what he’s allowed to tell them—the Dreamies don’t have secrets, and now they’re protecting the Guardians’ massive ones. “What about you? What have you been up to?”

“Well, it’s mostly classified—” Jeno begins.

“Ah, we can be vague,” Jaemin beams. “We basically got to try our hand at gang infiltration!”

* * *

When you’ve lived a life where strange things happen without rhyme or reason, you learn to stop looking for answers, to stop asking questions. You don’t connect the dots not because you don’t know how, but because it’s easier to not see them. For the sake of his sanity, Lucas is a need-to-know kinda guy.

In hindsight, it all makes sense.

When the Dreamies talk about the gang they’d infiltrated, talking over each other about beautiful but terrifying men, human but lacking in humanity, like an echo, and how the gang leaders all had their own powers, Lucas thinks nothing of it.

Things only come together when two familiar men walk down the infirmary hallways, the smaller using the taller one as a support system, not unlike Renjun and Jeno. But even though Renjun’s step falters as he sees the duo in the distance, it’s only when Mark says, “Kai-hyung! Kyungsoo-hyung!” That the Dreamies stiffen.

By the time Kai raises his arms up to wave at them, Renjun has broken free of the others’ grasp and has punched him right in the jaw. Lucas feels it rather than sees it; shock rushes through the bond, Lucas almost buckling under the restraint as Kai forces himself not to retaliate.

 _“Renjun!”_ Mark yells, and Lucas is already reaching for the Unit Leader who thrashes in his hold, cursing Kai in all of the languages he knows. Mark tries to pin Renjun’s arms down, but the younger boy screams. Renjun likes to threaten people, but he’s normally a lot more cool-headed than this.

But he’s the least of their concerns, now, because Donghyuck makes his way towards Kai, grip secure around the handle of his knife. Jaemin falls in step behind him, the softness in his face now gone.

“You sick bastard,” Donghyuck says, lifting his arm. The blade of the knife glints menacingly in the fluorescence.

“What the fuck are you guys _doing_!” Mark yells, but Donghyuck and Jaemin pay him no mind.

Kyungsoo, who still looks too pale to be out of bed, clenches his fist. Lucas feels the ground shake beneath him. Kai’s eyebrows furrow the way they do when he’s about to teleport, but Donghyuck is fast, and he’s getting impossibly closer—

“Wait, guys, stop,” Jeno says, panicked but authoritative. “That’s not him.”

“Are you fucking _blind_ , Jeno?” Jaemin asks. “That’s him. He looks exactly the same.”

Jeno reaches over and pulls the knife out of Donghyuck’s hands. “Stop for a second, alright?” Jeno says, voice louder. “His hair isn’t green, and he doesn’t have that weird eye. They just… really look alike. Except he’s less creepy.”

“It could be a disguise,” Donghyuck says. He and Jeno exchange a glance, though, and he pulls back.

“How the fuck do _you_ know them?” Jaemin asks, addressing him and Mark now.

“That’s Kai-hyung and Kyungsoo-hyung,” Mark says. “Kai-hyung works with us. He’s not a bad guy.”

“Kyungsoo-ssi is also a famous actor,” Lucas adds. “You may remember him from important dramas such as _100 Days My Prince._ ”

“That _saeguk_ you were obsessed with last summer?”

Although clearly exhausted, Kyungsoo’s lips twitch into a small smile. “You really are a fan, aren't you?”

Lucas feels his ears turn red, and he’s ready to say something cool that doesn’t reveal he’s watched said drama four times now, but Donghyuck looks at Mark. “You’ve been working with randoms instead of the hyungs?” He asks. “You got pulled out of the Dreamies so you could coordinate better with the 127 hyungs!”

“It’s complicated,” Mark replies. “Jungwoo-hyung got injured a few weeks after you got sent on your mission, and then this _really_ fucking weird thing happened—”

Kai steps forward then, frowning. Renjun tenses in Lucas’ hold, but he doesn’t break from it; the other Dreamies watch him warily. “You said you saw someone like me?” He asks. “But _not_ like me?”

“You could’ve had a dye job in the hour and a half since I’d last seen you,” Renjun accuses.

Kai ignores him, and asks, “But you saw someone like me, and he looked off.”

The puzzle pieces begin to fit together. The Dreamies are still confused, but Kai and Kyungsoo stare at each other, eyes wide.

“Maybe they’ve found them,” Kai says. “Where they could be.” He turns back, staring at Renjun. He rubs his jaw idly, but he doesn’t look upset anymore. “Can you tell me where this evil doppelganger of mine is?”

“We can’t tell you anything until we debrief,” Jeno replies, “And we get permission to tell you. We don’t know what your clearance is.”

“Look, you can tell me, right?” Mark says. “Just give me some of the specifics—”

Jaemin and Donghyuck look over at Jeno, whose gaze flickers back between Mark and Kai. “Not until after the debrief, sorry hyung, you know the rules,” he says, finally. Mark looks ready to protest—the Dreamies are good at their jobs, but they’ve never been known for being _rule abiding_ , but Jeno continues. “It’s classified information, and we’ve been undercover for four months. We’re not risking anything.”

The other three nod.

Jeno reaches out for Renjun; the best thing Lucas can do is pass him off. Renjun goes willingly, and doesn’t strike out at Kai again, so it’s a win. “We know the way from here, hyungs,” Jeno nods. “We’ll get Renjunnie patched up and we’ll debrief. We’ll be in a better spot to talk about everything that’s going on once we’ve all eaten and slept today off.”

Mark stares as the four of them walk off. Each Dreamie looks back with a sad little look at their former leader and a sour look at Kai and Kyungsoo, before they disappear around the corner. It would be funny, if Lucas didn’t know that the Dreamies were some of the most talented marksmen within the NCTU.

Kyungsoo breaks the silence. “They seem very young.”

“They are,” Mark replies, as if he wasn’t one of them once, as if they hadn’t been trained to be killing machines before they’d even learnt how to kiss or drive a car. “They’re just kids.”

“Whatever they’ve seen,” Kai says, wincing as he continues to rub at his jaw, “I feel like they might give us some answers about this clone situation.”

Crazy, Lucas thinks, wondering who else would be involved in all of this mess. Crazy, how sometimes the answers seem to fall into your lap from the most unexpected sources.

**Author's Note:**

> i keep forgetting i gave superm powers lmaoooooo.
> 
> as always, any and all feedback is appreciated! (and i'm really gonna clean out my inbox after i post this so i promise i'll get back to everybody asap lmao).
> 
> happy holidays! x


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